Scientix activities can be grouped into four types. We provide here a summary of the work performed and main results achieved between Apr 2016 and Sep 2019:
1) Scientix Portal
• The Scientix portal (
http://scientix.eu(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)) until mid-2016, was available in 8 languages. Since Sep 2016, the navigation of the portal, as well as key pages, are available in all 24 official EU languages.
• Additionally: 164 new projects, 180 news items, 282 events and 906 resources published; 142 resources were translated through the Scientix translation on demand service and the resources in Scientix can now be accessed from any portal with the Scientix widget.
2) Dissemination and exchange of practices
• Increased social media presence via Facebook “Science Teachers in Europe”, Twitter @scientix_eu and Instagram scientix_eu.
• Sent 84 Email Digests and published 10 thematic newsletters
• Published posters and fliers in 29 languages; 7 Scientix observatory papers; the 3rd Scientix Conference proceedings; a Scientix status update; and 11 interviews.
• The STEM Discovery Week (SDW) annual campaign promotes collaboration in STEM. 4 SDW Campaigns were organised. The 2019 SDW reached 4,700 schools, 15,500 teachers, 122,000 students in 40 countries.
• Campaigns also organised for the 3rd Scientix conference and around the publication of two reports on STEM education at the end of 2018 that provided an overview and analysis of current policies and practices in STEM education.
• Scientix has been presented at 36 events and supported 48 STEM education events and fairs.
• The Scientix Online Meeting Room was used 167 times and 140 new blog articles were published.
3) Professional Development
• The 3rd Scientix conference (May 2018) had 352 participants. The programme featured 4 keynotes, 56 talks, 14 workshops, six roundtables and 15 exhibition stands.
• 5 Science Projects Workshop in the Future Classroom Lab (FCL) were organised with 40 to 60 participants each time; and 2 week-long FCL training courses were organised with 23 and 41 teachers attending.
• 4 Scientix Project Networking Events (SPNEs) were organised with 20 to 30 participants each time; 31 webinars; 9 European Scientix hands-on trainings and 16 new Moodle courses
• 3 MOOCs were carried out by Scientix. Two in collaboration with the STEM Alliance and SYSTEMIC project: “Opening Minds to STEM careers”, for teachers (Apr 2017) and “Opening Schools to STEM careers”, for heads of schools and career advisors (Sep 2017). The courses reached over 1,200 and almost 600 participants respectively. The 3rd MOOC “STEM is everywhere” (Oct 2018) for teachers, had over 2,100 teachers participating.
4) Support of national strategies
• Scientix National Contact Points (NCPs) provide the link between Scientix at a European level and national activities. There are two types of NCPs: Ministries of Education (MoEs) and organizations acting as NCP selected through a call for interest. The MoEs are also members of the MoE STEM representatives Working Group (MoE STEM WG), a platform of discussion and exchange for MoEs regarding their STEM education policies. By Sept 2019, 27 countries had an NCP, with 22 of them also in the MoE STEM WG. Numerous national workshops and conferences have been organized with the support of Scientix. 3.
• Scientix Ambassadors (SA) act on a voluntary basis and are selected based on 1) obtaining a score of more than 65% in a SA Training Course and 2) an application to be a SA. From the 3 editions of the course 473 teachers from all over Europe and beyond became SA. SA disseminated the project on more than 2,430 occasions in 43 countries in Europe and beyond either online and on newspaper articles, national webinars or TV and radio interventions. 110 of the SA provided support to Scientix and to other STEM projects under the Scientix Projects Support initiative.
